Today, the Raval is one of the most popular nightlife areas and has become an important meeting place of the art and music scene and a cultural center in Barcelona. Especially in the evening, the streets and squares fill up and are lively until late in the evening. The Raval is a multicultural district.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, due to its proximity to the port, this became Barcelona's barri xinès, or Chinatown. The centre of working-class riots, it was hit hard by the wars, which did not help El Raval lose the air of a marginal outskirt that hung over it for years.

The name 'Raval' originates from the Hispanic-Arabic word arrabád, meaning a suburb on the city's outskirts, usually home to the poor and marginalised. The neighbourhood dates back to the 14th century, when Barcelona was in the grip of bubonic plague as it swept through Europe.